ST. LOUIS – UNI’s Jacqui Kalin has been named MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and headlines a group of six of the league’s top players named to the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Women’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete First Team, as voted by the conference’s Sports Information Directors. Kalin becomes the second student-athlete to earn MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors twice in women’s basketball, joining Indiana State’s Kelsey Luna (2009 and 2010). She was also named a first team CoSIDA Academic All-American in late February. In all, 19 players were honored on the scholar-athlete teams.

With a perfect 4.0 grade-point average and already pursuing her Master’s degree in Kinesiology and Sports Psychology, Kalin was previously a first team MVC scholar-athlete as a sophmore (2010) and a junior (2011). She was also a second team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2011. Kalin is joined on the first team by Bradley’s Katie Yohn, Creighton’s Sarah Nelson, Indiana State’s Anna Munn and Taylor Whitley and Missouri State’s Karly Buer.

The criteria for the scholar-athlete team balloting parallels the CoSIDA (College Sports Information Directors of America) standards for Academic All-America voting. Nominees must be starters or important reserves, have played at least 75 percent of a team’s games, and must carry at least a 3.20 GPA (on a 4.0 scale).

Student-athletes must also have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution (true and redshirt freshmen are not eligible) and must have completed at least one full academic year at the institution.

A total of 38 Valley student-athletes met the nomination criteria for scholar-athlete honors in 2013.

FIRST TEAM

Year

GPA

Major

^Karly Buer, Missouri State

Jr.

3.92

Sport and Park Administration

%$Jacqui Kalin, UNI

Sr.

4.00

Kinesiology/Sports Psychology

#Anna Munn, Indiana State

Jr.

3.70

Exercise Science

^Sarah Nelson, Creighton

Jr.

3.70

Finance/Pre-Health

Taylor Whitley

Sr.

3.79

Physical Education

Katie Yohn, Bradley

Sr.

3.38

Medical Technology

^2012 First Team; #2012 Second Team; *2012 Honorable Mention; %2011 First Team; $2010 First Team